It’s true that you don’t really appreciate something until it is taken away from you. I experienced that earlier today with the DrillDown feature of SurvivalWare. I’m working with a new customer to automate the loading of financial data for 60 to 70 freestanding locations. We are using the Simple model as a first step, and as a result, each SurvivalWare line item has several accounts mapped to it. I am using this customer as a test case to improve the ability of SurvivalWare to accept financial data from sources other than QuickBooks. So in the course of fixing a “design feature” that would not allow the same account number to be used twice with different descriptions, I introduced a bug that had the impact of disabling the drilldown feature for these types of imports. At the same time, I was trying to validate and make sense of their data. It was IMPOSSIBLE to do without a working DrillDown.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to review the purpose and operation of the DrillDown feature in SurvivalWare. DrillDown is a term in data analysis that refers to finding the detail behind any data item. The idea is that you are “drilling down” into the data to find out what is underneath any particular number. Here is how it is supposed to work.

You click on any cell in the DataViewer to make it the “Focus Cell.” Then click on the “Drilldown” icon to show what the detail is behind that cell. Remember that there are two types of variables in SurvivalWare: INPUT and CALCULATED. If you are looking at an INPUT variable, a Drilldown in SurvivalWare shows the accounts from your accounting system that were mapped to that variable.

If you are looking at a CALCULATED variable, the Drilldown will show you the variables used in the calculation. These should be the same variables that show up in the Formula Bar – but along with the month by month values for each variable, not just the logic.

So back to the bug – I did roll up my sleeves and get it fixed before sending the version out to any customers. I figured it was easier to fix the bug than to limp around without a working drilldown. It was amazing to me how much I have come to depend on the drilldown in my day to day financial analysis.